Indycar, the American motorsport that nobody other than Americans really watch, is pondering an entry into China in 2011 to garner Chinese fans. Indycar’s cars are much like F1′s with large wings, and prominent airboxes, except Indycars mostly go around in circles rather than giant tracks with tight corners and long flat straights.
The info regarding a 2011 street race was posted to Wikipedia:
The league is exploring a race in Qingdao, China. A 2011 event would be a street race, and move to a proposed 500,000-seat oval for 2012
The 2011 race is also mentioned on Qingdao’s own Wiki page:
IndyCar Series commercial division president Terry Angstadt has mentioned Qingdao as a possible venue for a second race in Asia after Twin Ring Motegi, Japan.[10] There are plans for a 400,000+ seat purpose-built course to be opened in 2011 or later. Angstadt has suggested that the series may race in a street circuit while the facilities are under construction.
The USAtoday quotes Indycar’s commercial director, Mr. Terry Angstadt, as saying:
Angstadt said the series hopes to have a Chinese driver in that race and has already identified three potential prospects that could soon compete in the developmental Indy Lights series. Under consideration is Qingdao, which hosted the Beijing Olympics sailing.
A street race in Qingdao would be fantastic, and would be something that CCT would most certainly watch, and potentially become a fan of. But where would they race? Most likely choice would be the suburbs around the Laoshan district area, or more possibly a mixture of the downtown area with plenty of elevated roads to race and the upmarket marina areas would be an excellent showcase for the city.
Formula One currently have a track in Shanghai, and has gained quite a following in China, with CCTV5 televising the race either live or pre-recorded (when they choose to show the national badminton championships instead), an Indy street race would certainly be more exciting for the average viewer should it choose to enter China.
If it happens, it looks like it will be in Jiaonan:
http://www.yaxuntuhang.com/case/detail.asp?nid=265
Jiaonan is a good 140km from QD city, not much there either last time I passed through, link to Google Maps via Dickens URL:
http://dickensurl.com/c3eb
I’m the one who originally posted the information to Wikipedia. I’ve read that Terry Angstadt was in China again in the last couple weeks so it sounds like they are still planning this.
Currently the IndyCar Series is roughly a 50/50 mix, with approx. 50% F-1 style street and road course racing and 50% going around in circles on the ovals. I imagine the proposed oval track would be similar to the Indianapolis Motor Speedway, albeit slightly bigger.
It all really depends on how much money is paid to them to come in whether the race happens or not.
A street race would make a lot more sense. Building a purpose built oval just for one race a year would not make much sense and would be a total waste of money (not unlike the Chinese to do it though).
Would be pretty cool if they pulled if off though…. even cooler if it lasted more than one year unlike the V8 Supercars.